Usually what happens in these stories is that a kid makes something that is a pale imitation of current standards, and the parents use their industry connections to get a PR blast about their awesome kid, that gets the kid a leg up in college or getting a job, and the 'invention' is forgotten.
Sure, but what's wrong with that? It's a little unrealistic to expect an 11 year old girl to productize an invention and bring it to market -- she'd have to team up with a schoolmate who is a budding patent attorney to have any hope of doing so without outside funding.
The nice thing about stories like this is that it helps gives inspiration to other young budding scientists.